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Groups > linux.debian.bugs.dist > #1188839

Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently

From Philip Hands <phil@hands.com>
Newsgroups linux.debian.bugs.dist, linux.debian.maint.boot
Subject Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently
Date 2024-03-02 21:10 +0100
Message-ID <IdDQd-dZfp-1@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References (2 earlier) <IdhcZ-dL65-1@gated-at.bofh.it> <IbaSl-cqaY-3@gated-at.bofh.it> <IdiLM-dMbH-9@gated-at.bofh.it> <IbaSl-cqaY-3@gated-at.bofh.it> <IdiLM-dMbH-9@gated-at.bofh.it>
Organization linux.* mail to news gateway

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> writes:

> Hi,
>
> On Friday, 1 March 2024 20:46:49 CET Holger Wansing wrote:
>> Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> wrote (Fri, 01 Mar 2024 06:46:27 +0100):
>> > If you want to make a constructive contribution, how about suggesting a
>> > wording that reflects the advice that you think would be most useful to
>> > the people that actually read the advice?
>> 
>> I would like to make a proposal, leaving the default setting as is
>> (aka: default to an enabled root account, no sudo), with only some wording
>> changings.
>> 
>> Patch attached.
>> 
>> What do you think?
>
> I think it's an improvement and I have some suggestions, which hopefully makes 
> it even better. I don't have a git-diff, but hopefully this works too.
>
> I'm not a native English speaker or particularly good at this, so it's more 
> the direction then the exact wording that's important. Others can undoubtedly 
> improve upon it.
>
>  _Description: Root password:
> "You need to set a password for 'root', the system administrative account.

This sentence is the thing that prompted me to change things in the
first place, because it is not true. One does not _need_ to set a root
password.

I don't actually care very much whether we encourage sudo use. My
wording ended up (after many variations) quite strongly encouraging it
mostly as an antidote to the implication that comes from having a
question dedicated to setting the root password, but I'd be happy with
any wording that makes sure that people understand that both options are
totally fine.

The other thing that I was trying to ensure is that people are reassured
that they'll get to specify a password that will get them root access even if
they decide to leave the root password unset.  This is because I've seen
people become quite uncertain about what to expect at this point in the
install.

I've found that it is not easy to come up with things that include much
nuance about this, while still fitting in the space available, which is
why I decided to try a more opinionated approach.

One could soften what I wrote by replacing "generally recommended" with
something like "often appropriate" -- how does that seem to people?

One can of course tinker with this stuff indefinitely. I actually spent
a fair amount of time wondering how best to describe not setting a root
password for instance -- should one say "leave the password unset", "set
an empty password", "enter no password", or something like "just hit
<RETURN>"? (and does that last one actually apply to all the available
UIs?).

The same goes for how you say that the password is not going to get
shown (unless you ask for it to be shown), which in the GTK UI gets
characters replaced with dots, IIRC in the text UI its with asterisks,
and I'd guess it just gets completely hidden in the speech install.

Cheers, Phil.
-- 
Philip Hands -- https://hands.com/~phil

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Thread

Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org> - 2024-02-25 01:50 +0100
  Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2024-02-25 23:50 +0100
    Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-02-29 21:10 +0100
      Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-02-29 23:20 +0100
        Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-01 00:40 +0100
          Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-01 07:00 +0100
            Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-01 15:50 +0100
            Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-01 21:00 +0100
              Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-01 22:40 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-02 21:10 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-02 23:00 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-03 00:50 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-04 06:30 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-04 10:50 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-04 16:10 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-04 22:40 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-04 23:00 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-04 22:10 +0100
  Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-05 16:20 +0100
    Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-05 18:00 +0100
      Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Cyril Brulebois <kibi@debian.org> - 2024-03-05 19:40 +0100
        Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-05 20:40 +0100
          Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Justin B Rye <justin.byam.rye@gmail.com> - 2024-03-05 21:50 +0100
            Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-05 22:30 +0100
              Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Justin B Rye <justin.byam.rye@gmail.com> - 2024-03-05 23:00 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-06 08:40 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Justin B Rye <justin.byam.rye@gmail.com> - 2024-03-06 09:20 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-06 11:20 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Justin B Rye <justin.byam.rye@gmail.com> - 2024-03-06 13:30 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-06 14:00 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-06 16:00 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Justin B Rye <justin.byam.rye@gmail.com> - 2024-03-07 09:00 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-07 20:30 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-08 20:10 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-08 23:20 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Justin B Rye <justin.byam.rye@gmail.com> - 2024-03-09 14:00 +0100
                Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-09 16:40 +0100
        Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2024-03-05 20:50 +0100
          Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> - 2024-03-06 19:50 +0100
  Bug#1064617: Passwords should not be changed frequently Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2024-03-05 19:40 +0100

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